Past Present Future

Today’s episode in our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders on significant political anniversaries looks at the event that blew British politics apart at the start of 1886. The ‘Hawarden Kite’ – when William Gladstone’s son Herbert floated the idea that his father had committed to Irish Home Rule – split the Liberal party, upended political allegiances and set the country on the path to potential civil war. How did it happen? Why were passions running so high on the question of Ireland? And how does it all compare to Brexit? Out tomorrow on PPF+: Part 2 of David’s conversation with Robert in which they take the story of the fight over Irish Home Rule up to the crisis of 1912-1914. How close did Britain come to an actual civil war? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Next time in Politics on Trial: Muhammad Ali vs. the Draft Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An extra episode to accompany our Films of Ideas series: David explores The Designated Mourner by Wallace Shawn, the writer and co-star of My Dinner with Andre. How did a play first performed in 1996 turn into a prophetic text for our times? How was it shaped by Shawn’s experiences in Central America and his view of Reagan’s America? What makes it one of the greatest of all contemporary political fictions? Next time – Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Home Rule for Ireland! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today it’s the last in our series of live episodes recorded at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to film director and campaigner Beeban Kidron about Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), a much-loved film that’s also chock full of interesting ideas. Is memory the same as identity? Are all relationships founded on manipulation? What happens when we try to curate our mental distress? How should we resist the tech panacea of a painless existence? Who gets to choose what we remember and what we forget? Next time: The Designated Mourner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The fourth episode in our season of live recordings from the Regent Street Cinema is about another film that explores the relationship between biography and philosophy: Derek Jarman’s Wittgenstein (1993), which tells the story of an extraordinary life in a way that is both light and profound. David talks to writer and philosopher Nikhil Krishnan about Ludwig Wittengenstein’s ideas of war, science, truth, freedom, sexuality, language, loyalty and communism and how they are portrayed on screen. Does the life explain the ideas or do the ideas explain the life? Next time: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind w/Beeban Kidron Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode in our season of live recordings from the Regent Street Cinema looks at the biopic of a revolutionary: Margaretha von Trotta’s Rosa Luxemburg (1986), which explores the deeply unstable relationship between the personal and the political. David talks to writer and philosopher Lea Ypi (Free, Indignity) about where biography ends and philosophy begins and whether revolutionary politics requires the leading of a revolutionary life. What was Rosa Luxemburg’s true cause? Who or what betrayed her and her ideas? And how does her legacy live on? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David and film historian Harrison Whitaker discuss the greatest Christmas film of ideas: Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, which is much more than just a seasonal tearjerker. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Next time: Wittgenstein w/Nikhil Krishnan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices